When a woman named Thursday finds out she is going to be reincarnated as Tuesday, her attempt to cheat the cycle of reincarnation unleashes a terrible beauty that leaves the other days of the week in turmoil.

Thursday's Fictions, a 52 minute surreal dance fantasy film with Edwardian Gothic stylings, has won three awards, has been a finalist for four more (and the book for the Kenneth Slessor Prize), and is tonight a finalist for "Best Experimental" at the 2007 Enhance TV ATOM Awards, taking place in the Plaza Ballroom, Regent Theatre, Collins St in Melbourne, Australia.

Thursday's Fictions is not only available on DVD (USA, Australia/NZ, UK/Europe/Asia) - you can experience some of the magic in Second Life as well, as constructed by The Project Factory's Gary Hazlitt. There is also a trailer to whet your appetite for the experience, though it may not be suitable for work, including artistically contextualised partial nudity.

The still image you see above doesn't do the place justice. Turn the sound on, and walk through the place. Experience it first-hand and in motion.

Literature Alive! (disclosure: I am an owner of this group and have been involved in these developments) is running two events over the next few days.

On Saturday at 8am SL Time students from De Sales University will be judged on their material for the "Literature of the Progressive Era" display in a funfair on land contributed by Finger Lakes Community College. From tomorrow you can judge which of the elements you find meets the criteria best - you are not judging the build (most of it is bought from in-world or created by people other than the students), but the content in terms of how well it teaches you about the era in question - a era of significant social change. You have the chance to vote for the best group, who will win a RL cash prize and leave feedback for the groups via an anonymous web-form.

Literature Alive! has also converted the British Gothic Literature classroom into a haunted house, with some help (and extra prims for a while) from out hostess, the Alliance Library, on Eduisland 3. As well as giving you the chance to learn more about gothic literature and the British authors, there is a hidden red cauldron. Find this to win a small L$ prize. There are other games and activites too, and no commercial activity, just fun for Halloween.

The last few days of posts have been on the heavy side, so here's a little something to lighten the mood. I first learned of gorcaking when I was viewing Roberta Beauchamp's flickr page. She'd taken a freebie cupcake that you wear on your hand and modified it to fit on her entire body. After that, she ventured into the land of Gor and was promptly caged.

The sheer hilarity of a caged cupcake inspired me to go on my own adventures. As you can see in the picture gallery, my journey took me to the Welcome Area, Help Island, Eros, a strip club, and on a drive. I was even lit on fire at Burning Life! I ended up having quite a bit of fun with it, using phrases like "Back up off my cupcake!", and "Why you all up in my frosting?" To start gorcaking, you can pick up your freebie cupcake here.

It seems the love affair of the media, however 'interesting' the research, continues apace.

It also appears that, with the exception of those that hate SL we're moving past the attacks into more or less balanced pieces, and, in some of the mainstream media away from sex in SL as the core of the story at long last.

The NY Times is carrying another article. This one is making SL appear to be horribly bourgeois and all about keeping up with the Joneses, clothes, cars, sex beds and all. It's slightly misleading - in fact if I were a furry I might be downright insulted by "But the largest slice of the population follows the crowd, and the crowd is not dressing up as dragons." Even if I had to acknowledge the truth of it.

The Toronto based Globe and Mail carries an article about the law and behaviour in SL, looking in quite a lot of depth at griefing, but skimming over child porn, gambling, Bragg v Linden Lab and so on. It's not sensationalist though, it's looking at how laws are being formed and how tools are gradually coming into being to help control this.


Finally, Education World carries a potted but interesting and useful guide to some good education spots in Second Life - along with a good piece of general advice: "these sites admittedly stress the 'wow' factor of a 3-D virtual environment. As Sean suggests, once you are hooked, you can find the more practical, but less dramatic, places."

More like these please in the mainstream media - certainly steps in the right direction.

(Thanks to Carol Tucker for some of the links).

John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Go, and Charlie's Chocolate Factory, spent 30 minutes in Second Life on August 20^th, answering questions about his upcoming film, The Nines. The movie plot explores the intersection between the real and the virtual, while the promotional methods are heavily using transmedia to engage fans into alternate reality games. August announced that he is hoping to release a version of the movie that would allow fans to re-edit it.

The premiere for the The Nines is set for August 31^st in New York and Los Angeles, and September 28^th in Austin, TX.

With over 500 contacts on Flickr and some 3,000 photos, CodeBastard Redgrave has created her own following and social network on the 2D web. She meets most people based on common interests through flickr, twitter or her blog, and then uses SL as a means to share experiences/connect further with her on-line friends. This is an amazing new approach that has gained her more popularity than she ever imagined.

CodeBastard, or Codie to her friends, has a vibrant personality that is reflected in her redheaded avatars and her artsy SL photos. Looking up to other artists, such as Vint Falken, Hiro Eldeman, SalemNyx Lisle, and Stephen Venkman, Codie is now in a league of her own. She has also recently expanded her reach into SL with a virtual gallery and DJ music events. Her words of wisdom for newbie artists: use all the mediums at your disposal, in particular flickr and blogging, in order to make yourselves known in the community, and do NOT get discouraged! :)

There are a lot of residents cheering on specific teams, but with 32 sims, the campsites may be hard to locate. Christopher Sterling has provided me with a map of the locations, which I've deciphered and SLURL'd for you! Please keep in mind that the sims are listed in the order that they would go around the track, and the teams listed left to right, top to bottom.

Please read on for the complete listing of team locations ...

The Pixels in Pink ladies are at it again! They've designed their campsite, appropriately named PiP Film Noir, to be a brilliant mix of greyscale and ... pink! The ladies, Torrid Midnight, Zyrra Falcone, Hosequeen McLean, Pukk Abel, Rose Farina, Stella Costello, Fallingwater Cellardoor, Nephilaine Protagonist, and several others, have created an element of mystery and awe that just calls to you.

A very tired, overworked Stella Costello mentioned that she was making a Machinima this morning and I'm sharing it with you! As you can see from the film, there are auctions, vendors, flowers, dancing, a theater, and even PIE! Please stop by and donate or purchase items if you can, as all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

Just as a reminder, Relay For Life officially starts at 2pm SLT/PDT today, but the sims are open now to explore.

Beginning noon, Saturday the 28th, and running until the 29th, Cube3 and The Adventurer Society of Second Life will be showing 24 hours of nonstop movies flicks in their brand-new 'fly-in' theater in the Barsoom sim called The Sky Cinema. From the press release:

The Sky Cinema is a Retro Futuristic Drive in Theater that will bring the past that was into the future that never will be. The event will feature an opening party at 7pm pst Saturday. So Join us for the best in B movies running all day through the night for a 24 hr shlockfest of horror and bad sci-fi.

You had me at 'schlockfest'.

(Thanks, Larry!)

There are so many events going on within Second Life Relay For Life this weekend that you don't want to miss! The planners, including Fayandria Foley, Timeless Prototype, RC Mars, and Christopher Sterling, have graciously allowed us to reprint their schedule for our readers. Please note that the times listed are SL time, or PDT.

For those of you who want an instant look at the live music world, there's a new and exciting event coming up -- Woodstock 2007. A grassroots effort, organized entirely by Traveling Avatar and a handful of enthusiasts and musicians, Woodstock (or shall we say Plystock?) is still searching for talent to participate on their August 16th performance.

Their site holds the schedule and artists involved so far, but there is plenty of room for more! Contact Hope Clary inworld to participate in the show or attend the events at beautiful Twilight Gardens and Nowhereville.

Thanks to Vint Falken for the heads-up.

Now in its second year, network television station the CW has announced its upcoming lineup of shows, including something called Gossip Girl, which will feature its own online space designed to help watchers find replicas of the clothing the characters wear on the show.

While the article specifically mentions SL, this sort of shopping world seems similar to MTV's Laguna Beach, which means that the CW will probably use a variant of There.com software to build its virtual mall. Sure, it's dumbed-down from SL's wide range of manipulatory options, but consider its audience.

(Thanks, Neptune!)

While news of his disappearance have been far-reaching, current speculation is that Starax Statosky is merely wandering the grid in an alt. He's kinda like Bruce Banner, walking the world trying to do good, but with a huge green secret inside him ... okay, he's not at all like Bruce Banner. But this event from the Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden, Market & Aquarium in cahoots with the Crescent Moon Museum might just bring him back out!

Entitled 'Hidden Starax!', this event runs for 6 weeks, beginning on the 25th of July at the Oyster Bay sim. Over 20 rare Starax pieces will be shown, with one or two on display at any one time, due to high prim counts. From the press release:

"The Crescent Moon Museum donated these Starax pieces to Oyster Bay because of our shared interest in bringing the finest Second Life art to SL's residents," said Tayzia Abbatoir, owner of Crescent Moon. "My Starax collection is an example of the creativity that is possible using Second Life as a medium. I'm excited that the world will have the opportunity to share in Starax's work."

Adds Morris Vig, Oyster Bay owner: "Making the free Starax pieces easily accessible to the public is a passion of Tayzia and mine. Like any collectible market, the market for Starax brings out the unscrupulous element. I personally was taken on a Starax piece when I started collecting his work and did not know the pieces were free. Offering these pieces to the public is our way of helping make sure that never happens again."

This event will also interface with the SLCC from the 24-26 of August, with the display of 3 of Starax's most prized pieces. This will be an event to remember; if anyone anywhere has any contact with Starax, let him know it's safe to come out again!

(Thanks, Morris and Tayzia!)

DeF#*kups is a punk band in SL. That's really all you need to know. Oh, and I suppose some mention ought to be made of their scary, ramshackle 'headquarters', photos of which accompany this article. If you're brave or stupid enough to wander inside, you'll find their punkrocksong generator, which appears to be running on moonshine. You can also get a free copy of their album which is under Creative Commons license. I'm not going to provide the link, as you really have to go check out the build yourself. Oi!

(Thanks, Tooter!)

Michael Bay's summer blockbuster, Transformers, was successful, in part, because it conjures up fond childhood memories for a generation of grown-ups.

The official site of Transformers, the movie, is developed by Liam Kanno, the same talented content creator who designed a replica of the movie set of 300 ("This is Sparta!") and Live Free or Die Hard . The build is impressive in its artistic features although it's fully enclosed and a bit confusing to navigate its labyrinth of tunnels and corridors. You can also find two official Transformers movie avatars, distributed for free, under the statue of frozen Megatron.

For those who grew up loving the transformers, the charm of these legendary characters is their awesome ability to change appearances between robots and ordinary cars/vehicles/mechanical things. In fact, I'd dare say that the essence of transformers is that they ... transform! And this is where Liam's avatars fall short.